The disposal of waste is a major concern of the municipal, commercial, and private sectors. Various types of recycling equipment and techniques are in use or have been proposed to dispose of waste, all with varying degrees of success.
One known method of disposal is to transport and bury the waste in a landfill. However, landfill sites are becoming scarce. Those remaining landfills are cost prohibitive, especially in rapidly growing urban areas. In addition, even if suitable sites for new landfills can be found, they are often at a distance that makes transportation costs prohibitive to their use.
Furthermore, landfills are a relatively inefficient method of recycling. Being simply buried at one site, the economic potential of the land is rarely fulfilled. Therefore, there is a need for an alternative disposal process capable of removing waste while saving land for future development.
One known option for circumventing the use of landfills has been to burn the waste material. However, this produces an ash residue, which can be toxic to the surrounding environment. As a result, there are many environmental limitations imposed by Federal, State, and local jurisdictions, where open burning is not always feasible or possible. Many such regulations significantly limit the amount of ash and smoke that may be released into the atmosphere.
There is a continuing need for an incinerator that is a closed system in compliance with relevant laws and regulations. Desirably, the incinerator is configured to combust waste with minimal emission of ash and debris.